Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Review

Tuesday, 03 November 2009 05:20

Reviews - XBOX 360

Tom Clancy is to tactical video gaming what Stephen King has become to thriller horror films: the standard. The ever expanding Tom Clancy line of games has become what tactical video gamers wait for. The latest Rainbow Six instalment 'Vegas 2' has brought publisher/developer Ubisoft some of its best reviews to date, and has shown some great progress in this line of games known for its realism, difficulty, and utter awesomeness. 
Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 begins where the first finishes off. A flashback to the first game serves as a training mission and helps fill in the gaps for those of you who aren't privy to the Rainbow Six: Vegas story. You are reminded of the traitorous actions of a team member occurring in at the end of the last instalment. You are the elite of the elite, and this time, you're hunting people trained by your own.

Ubisoft has three main lines of award winning games in their arsenal; Rainbow Six, the tactical line, has you commanding two teammates in super-secret covert-ops missions. Ghost Recon, the modern combat line, has you commanding an entire squad from third person. Lastly Splinter Cell, the stealth based line, has you attempting to complete missions solo and virtually undetected.
Although all of these games have the same look and feel, each game reacts differently to the player. Therefore one may be great at Splinter Cell, but not so great while playing Ghost Recon. It is important to know that if you have played any other line of Tom Clancy games other than Rainbow Six and not thought well of it, that does not mean that this game is not for you. In fact, the opposite may be the case. A little Rainbow Six may be all you need.

Presentation

Designed in a simple yet useful fashion the menu's are easy to use and the available options are displayed at all times. The main menu shows the user their fully customized character while displaying all of the generic options; story, multiplayer, character, etc.
The only thing I wasn't fond of with the delivery of this game was the multiplayer lobby's. When changing maps or game types the game would have to reload, and then you have the option to launch the match, at which time the game would load the match again. I didn't quite understand why this was setup in this fashion.
Other than that I found the HUD and menu's to be very effective, pretty much flawless.

Presentation Score: 17

Graphics

The diverse urban environments in this game were filled with rich and detailed textures. Both inside and outside buildings ranging from warehouses to casinos were packed with a huge variety of obstacles, cover, and vivid colors. The maps were able to keep up with the realism that Rainbow Six games are best known for.

The fluidity of movement in the game also provides support to the illusion of realism. I would say that other than the fact that there wasn't much of an improvement from the first instalment of Vegas that the graphics in this game met standard. Although they weren't necessarily mind boggling, they didn't disappoint. The gameplay was never hindered by graphic rendering at any point in my experience with it.

Graphics Score: 17

Sound

Background noise can make or break a game. In the case of Rainbow Six Vegas 2, I'd have to say that the background music, effects, and noise, was superb. Everything from distant gunfire and guard dogs barking, to the chatter on the radio actually making sense when you're able to catch words again, added to the realism that is so important to this line of games.
Excellent weapon sounds also added up to the outstanding audio experience this game was able to put forth.
However, one bug in the audio all but reversed any good done to the sound in this game. While playing in multiplayer it sometimes happens where a player is killed while shooting his/her weapon. In this case the audio for that weapon could be heard loud and clear by all players in the match long after the death. This caused me to play this game on mute countless times, and often took away from what should have been an outstanding experience.

Sound Score: 12

Gameplay

One thing about this game that I loved was the three, very different, yet very enjoyable game modes. That's not even mentioning the five different multiplayer modes. So in all there were eight different ways to play this game each and every time you put the disc in. Oh, and did I mention each type gives XP as well?
First is the campaign story mode. There are several checkpoints and ammo stocks in this game which is a pleasant change from other Rainbow Six titles because it makes 'getting there' a lot easier. In the story mode you lead your team, which consists of Michael and Jung through several distinct Vegas locations. Including a video game convention that boasts huge advertisements for MLG oddly enough. You are able to direct your teammates to do just about anything, such as enter and clear rooms, revive one another, throw grenades, or even smoke. However, you still don't want to just send them out on the rampage. If they both happen to get downed, the realism of this game will have you killed reviving them even on easy unless you clear the remaining foes.

Secondly, is the Terrorist Hunt mode. It can be done co-operatively over Xbox Live or locally using another controller or A.I. teammates. It pits you against terrorist groups differing in density and difficulty depending on the settings chosen, in almost a dozen different maps. Your goal is to kill all of them, and not die in the process. You can equip your player with an entire arsenal of gadgets and weaponry to aid you in your quest. However, on the realistic difficulty you'll likely be cursing out the terrorist that blew off your head before you even saw them.
The third game mode is multiplayer. However, I won't get into that yet, as we have a section dedicated to that mode.
What I do want to mention though is how nice it is that the environment can be shot through. Just as in real life, a wooden crate won't stop a bullet, so turning the thermals on and shooting people through walls is great fun.
Your goal through all these modes is to gain the XP to level up to Elite, which is the highest level in the game. It takes some time, but levelling up your ACES makes it go quicker. There are three categories of ACES and 99 levels of each ACE. There is Close Quarters Battle (CQB), Marksman, and Assault categories of ACES. Each level either unlocks a new weapon or XP award. Every level after 20 for each ace unlocks a 5000XP award which is a big help to the level ups.

Gameplay Score: 19